Tiger Woods Was Drinking Before Crash: Report

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Tiger Woods was drinking before he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a tree outside his tony Orlando, Fla., neighborhood two weeks ago, according to a witness who also told authorities Woodshad been prescribed the medications Ambien and Vicodin.

Updated at 11:54 AM PST on Thursday, Jun 30, 2011

Tiger Woods was drinking before he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a tree outside his tony Orlando, Fla., neighborhood two weeks ago, according to a witness who also told authorities Woods had been prescribed the medications Ambien and Vicodin.

The witness told the Florida Highway Patrol that Woods boozed the same day of the Nov. 27 crash, the Orlando Sentinel reported, an allegation that led police to believe "impairment" was partially to blame in the collision, which new sources say left Woods intubated in intensive care.

Tiger Woods' Life and Times

The witness who dished on Woods' drinking has not yet been named by the police, but an FHP report says the same witness who told authorities Woods had been drinking also "removed the driver from the vehicle" after the crash. Wife Elin Nordegren Woods told police she pulled her husband from the car.

"A witness stated that the driver had consumed alcohol earlier in the day and the same witness removed the driver from the vehicle after the collision," read the FHP report, which was written by Trooper Joshua A. Evans to request prosecutors' help in obtaining "medical blood results" after the crash.

"Also, the same witness stated that the driver was prescribed medication (Ambien and Vicatin [sic])," Evans' report read.

According to Evans' report, "impairment of the driver" was "suspected" due to the "careless driving that resulted in the traffic crash." Woods was cited with careless driving and fined $164 for the offense.

Evans' request for blood tests was denied by Florida attorneys.

Woods' condition was more serious than initially reported after the crash, according to a source familiar with Woods' hospitalization, who told MSNBC the golfer was admitted straight to intensive care and intubated when he arrived at the Health Central Hospital in Ocoee, Fla.

A police report released earlier Monday said authories arrived on the scene to find Woods "unresponsive" on the ground after the crash with Elin kneeling beside him and his head on a pillow.

"My immediate observations were that of an unresponsive [male] subject, breathing adequately with lacerations to the lips and noticeable blood in the mouth," the Sentinel reported Officer Brandon McDonnell wrote in the incident report. McDonnell found nothing "immediately alarming," the report reads.

Woods' crash started a media firestorm that eventually revealed the sports star's alleged trysts with multiple mistresses both in his hometown of Orlando and at other hotspots across the country. The No. 1-ranked golfer apologized earlier this week for his "transgressions" but didn't confirm or deny any reports of adultery.